The harsh shriek of Fox's alarm clock ripped him away from his sleep far too early, as a result receiving a groan and a quick slap to its snooze button from the vulpine. He was already starting to remember why he told himself he'd never join the CDF, or any military organization, after his academy days had proven he wasn't a morning person. Rolling over beneath the covers, he glanced at the time the clock had set off at.

4:30 AM

"It's too damn early…" he mumbled, glaring at the device's red display, already getting a slight urge to just push it off the table in frustration. While Fox knew he should've expected this under official CDF employment, actually having to wake up like this on his second morning on the base hit differently.

Sitting up and swinging his legs off the bed, Fox slowly stood up and let the blood flow to his head, trying to remember what he'd read in the documents he got from Grey yesterday; Star Fox was expected to be up before everyone else to get their Arwings flight-ready before the rest of the base got crowded, since they finally had some sort of operation to prepare for. Grey, being her usual self, wouldn't tell him exactly what the mission entailed and insisted it had to remain secret until the last minute.

Naturally, being the team's leader, he set his clock a good 30 minutes earlier than everyone else; it'd be hell trying to wake Falco up, even with Peppy's help.

"Least the others went to bed early," Fox reassured himself, getting dressed with a fresh pair of clothes. He couldn't be bothered to throw on his usual flight suit and jacket just yet either, even if his unofficial CO might whine about it. For now, a simple t-shirt and sweatpants would do.

After washing up and taking one of his quickest showers, Fox stepped out into his ship's hallway and headed for his first stop of the day: Falco's door.

Fox knocked, knowing full well the avian had probably unplugged his clock again. "Falco. Bud. Come on, we gotta get up. Big day ahead of us!"

His friend didn't immediately reply, but Fox eventually heard movement under the covers behind the door, followed by the sound of something getting knocked to the floor.

"...Uh, yeah… I'll uh… Yeah."

"I'll take it." Fox was pleasantly surprised by how the hothead was finally cooperating, deciding that any morning he wasn't being yelled at was a good thing. "Thanks, we'll be in the mess."

"Huh, that was kinda painless… Something's not right."

Stuffing the thought away for the moment, Fox continued down the hall down to the mess hall, trusting the rest of his team to get up by themselves. Going to the coffee machine, the vulpine prepared himself a cup with the highest caffeine percentage that he figured was safe.

The first one to join him after he'd gotten about halfway through his mug was Krystal, giving him a warm, if tired smile.

"Morning, Fox."

"Heya Krys. Get enough sleep?" Fox's voice wasn't much better, still waiting for the stimulant to kick in.

"Probably. Depends on what the commander has got lined up for us."

"Yeah…" He already had a good enough idea of what they'd be spending the day on, but for her sake he didn't bring it up, let alone think about it.

"Fox?"

"Hmm?"

"I did a bit of thinking last night, about what Vannessa said when we first got here." She walked over to the coffee maker herself, starting to get something similar to what Fox had. "I don't know what it is about her, but that Cornerian is rather good at hiding her thoughts. Anything I tried to pick up on was… Muddy. Incomplete."

"You able to piece anything together?" Her partner fixed his posture slightly at the table, looking back at her with interest.

"Nothing solid. I can't tell if her motives are malicious or not, but I fully believe she's hiding something."

Fox sighed, his suspicions confirmed. "No idea what it is?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. It might just be something she'll tell us today during the briefing. Could be just a secret she was under oath not to let out until now."

"Alright. Well… Thanks for the insight, Krys. Just gives us something else to look out for… Uh, during the meeting, later, see if you can dig up something from her. I don't wanna say this whole mission is rigged or anything crazy, but there's a difference between 'need-to-know', and 'know-nothing'."

Krystal nodded back, taking a sip of coffee. "I'll do what I can."

It wasn't long until a baggy-eyed Slippy and Peppy strolled into the mess hall, the hare wearing his white, tea-stained bathrobe that Fox could remember back when-

"No. Don't go there."

"Mornin' Fox," Peppy said, taking a seat at the table and quickly noticing Fox's empty mug. "Heh, you think one's gonna be enough?"

Rubbing his messy slight mohawk, Fox shook his head. "No, not for dealing with Grey."

His mentor chuckled, sitting down with Slippy across the table from Fox, bench creaking from their combined weight. "That ship wake you up last night too?"

"Ship?"

"Hmm, guess not. Something landed round' 2 in the morning, never got up and checked what it was but it left about 10 minutes later. Pretty damn rude I'd say, thing probably woke up most of the base."

"Just another thing to hate Vannesa for." Fox sighed, rubbing his neck and looking back down at the empty mug, hoping it'd magically refilled itself. "You get enough sleep, even with that?"

"Nah." Peppy waved him off. "Still not as bad as Falco's music."

Nodding, the team's leader turned to the groggy-eyed amphibian, preparing himself for the guilt he'd feel after telling the mechanic this so early. "Hey, Slip?"

The sleepy toad looked back, looking a little lost in thought. "Yeah?" His tone still held that enthusiasm that Slippy was well known for, but Fox could tell he wasn't all there at the moment.

"We've got about two hours before we all need to meet Grey in the command building… Do you think you could run some pre-flight checks until then? I'm not expecting much in terms of actually fighting, but…"

Slippy rubbed his eyes, nodding back. "Sure, yeah I can do that. You want me to get those new shield modules ready, too?"

"If you think they're ready, go ahead. If anything happens I expect we'll be running a lot of close air support, so they'll be perfect for getting in close for bomb and cannon runs." Fox never liked running CAS himself, always being secretly thankful that Falco and Slippy carried all the heavy ordinance for ground pounding enemy positions and vehicles. Strafing targets at near-supersonic speeds was dangerous work, especially in a fighter that wasn't especially designed for it.

Slippy answered with a lazy, mock salute and a smile; probably happy that he'd be in his element no matter how awake. Getting up from the table, the mechanic strolled off down the hallway, vanishing out of sight around a corner.

"That ship landing at that hour strikes me as a little strange." Fox's mind filled with thoughts that weren't his own; Krystal was using her innate ability on him, communicating telepathically and silently to anyone else. "I can't think of any reason why they'd fly at such a horrible time. Don't they have rules for that sort of thing?" She looked intently at him from across the table, holding her mug awfully tight.

All Fox needed to do to reply was think. "So? Maybe some cargo shuttle was late?"

"It would be around longer to unload, would it not?"

"Hmm, fair.," Fox conceded, remembering the types of cargo shuttles the CDF used; most of them required specialized infrastructure to handle the standardized containers they hauled around, and the base didn't have any that he'd seen. "What are you thinking it is, then?"

"I think they either dropped someone off, or picked someone up."

Fox didn't quite see her point. "Alright… Well, yeah, maybe it's dropping someone off, but I don't see why it should really matter to us. Like, sure, it's kinda rude of them to land at that hour, but it probably isn't much to worry about, Krys."

"Maybe you're right. We have enough to worry about with whatever Grey wants us to do, I suppose."

Fox was the first one into Vannsea's office, besides herself of course. The she-wolf was already sitting down at the other end of the table, having brought along a thermos full of whatever her choice of drink was. A stack of files sat next to it, probably related to what she wanted them all to do.

She looked up from the stack, noticing her hired help had entered the room. "Glad you could make it at this hour," she said. "All of you, sit."

"Are these hours gonna be common? We don't tend to work well when we're still half-asleep," Fox grumbled, taking the chair closest to her while the rest of his team did the same. A quick glance over to Falco showed the avian still wasn't very awake, let alone attentive.

"Depends," she shrugged."We've got ourselves quite the operation today, but I'm sure that's what you were all expecting." Reaching underneath the edge of the table, the commander slid an unseen data drive into its socket. Lighting up soon after, a large, flat insetted screen in the center powered on. Fox mistook the screen for some sort of polished glass or stone when he first saw it days ago, but its size made slightly more sense now.

A rectangular topographic map of a nearby region came into view, focused around a long stretch of highway, marked in red. "This is highway 12; it connects the nearby city of Farcliff with Macbeth's only functional orbital elevator." The map panned over and zoomed in on the city, which was built on the edge of a series of cliffs as its name suggested.

"In just a few hours, a motorcade will be leaving from the old Cornerian embassy and get on the highway, heading north before it reaches the edge of the city." Fox watched as his CO followed a green line on the map with her finger, weaving through the grid of ground-level streets before reaching highway 12. "The motorcade is for a VIP: an ambassador by the name of Lasker who decided to stick around for too long."

"Huh…" Peppy spoke up, rubbing his chin almost stereotypically. "Wouldn't be a Lasker Owens, would it? Brown coyote, kinda short?"

"I believe that's his full name, yes. Why?"

"Pardon me if I like reminiscin', but I ran into Lasker back in my old academy days, guy was half my height but his attitude made up for it; explains why he's still here."

"Hmm, then this mission may be more personal to you. We could use that."

"Uh, yeah, somethin' like that," was all Peppy managed to say before Grey continued, a little taken aback by her continued bluntness.

"Lasker's motorcade will stick to the highway until it reaches our secured zone at the elevator's ground terminal, and I'll only consider him safe once he's inside." The line on the map picked up speed, following the highway north as it wove through the mountains and hills that covered most of Macbeth's surface. "We've shut down the road to keep it free from civilian traffic, and swept most of the larger bridges for explosives."

Said bridges became highlighted as the tip of the line crossed over each one, showing off just how few were used along the route; most of the road stuck to just following the terrain as best as it could. "Those aren't my main concern, however…"

Panning out again, the map adjusted its view to display a particularly twisty stretch of road, having been built along a riverbank in a slot canyon. "This is Laqua pass: a few kilometers of highway that was supposed to be phased out last year, but right now it's our fastest option."

Ground-level pictures popped up on the screen next to the map, showing how narrow the pass actually was, getting a groan from a slightly more awake Falco. Fox glared at the near-vertical walls, mostly consisting of jagged rock with a mixture of moss and other vegetation clinging on. In other words; not something he'd wish anyone to crash into, except for a certain large someone.

"We're going in there? Looks like most of that canyon isn't much wider than the road." Fox raised a brow at his temporary CO, debating on hating her slightly more depending on her answer.

"Thankfully not. If the convoy runs into trouble down there then they'll deal with it themselves; the most you could do to help is hit targets on the walls and the plateaus above the road."

"Makes the crazy ape's tunnels under Venom look safe," Falco complained, leaning forward after rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Falco's right, even the tunnels on the Aparoid homeworld had more space to maneuver in," Peppy concurred, looking over the photographs himself. "There's really no other option?"

Vanessa shook her head. "No. If there was we wouldn't be talking about this, but unless those Arwings can dig tunnels we're stuck with the pass. Now, as I wanted to say; Lasker's convoy is surrounded by a small detachment of armored fighting vehicles and troop carriers. They've got enough firepower and armor to deal with anything short of a tank." The map zoomed out yet again at dizzying speed, bringing the whole route back into view, leaving Laqua pass barely visible now thanks to subpar image quality.

"Commander…" Fox said, feeling rather odd that he was addressing someone that technically held nearly the same rank. "You've talked a whole lot about this convoy and its route, but… What exactly do you want us to do? Usually we have some rules of engagement established before we take off at the very least. And why can't you just put Lasker on a shuttle and call it done? Wouldn't that be the safest option?"

The room fell silent after Fox was done, Vannessa leaning forward and bracing her torso on the table. Her gaze wandered down, probably in deep thought over the vulpine's questioning. Looking over to Krystal, Fox noticed her intentful glare at the wolf; he knew what she was trying to do.

"...We've been unable to get anything flightworthy." She finally spoke, still looking at the table. "You saw the state that our craft are in earlier; we're cannibalizing most of them for parts at this point, and I don't trust our few remaining gunships for that long flight."

"You can't get some civilians to lend you anything? There's gotta be someone that has something reliable." Fox pressured, a little worried he was asking too many questions, considering the fact one had landed earlier in the night.

"No. That's all I can say." The CO crossed her arms, shooting Fox a strange look that was enough to go on.

Don't push this.

"Alright. I guess it doesn't matter, just tell us what to do." It was enough for now; especially knowing that Krystal might have some insight later that he'd never get otherwise. "ROE?"

"Right, yes… I'll keep it very simple; anything you deem that's a threat to the convoy. I don't give a damn what it is. Some civilian in his sports car that got past the roadblocks? A bus? Don't care, vaporize it if you have to, I'm not taking any more risks than I already am."

Fox had to fight to keep his composure, fighting back the assault of questions that filled his mind; was this what the CDF was slowly becoming, or was she just some insane outlier? Had something like this happened before, and those furious calls he'd overheard were all true? Was there-

"Relax Fox, I can sense your stress even without trying…" Krystal's words were reassuring enough for him to focus again enough to maintain eye contact with his superior. "Seems we were both right, though."

"A-alright, that's clear enough." He struggled to reply back, forcing all the questions down for now.

"As for your actual role; I want you within five kilomters of the convoy at all times. I'll leave the formation and other flight details up to you, McCloud, as long as you can rapidly respond to anything that might threaten Lasker and his escort. Circles, figure-eights, whatever, as long as you're ready." The actual role he'd be playing was simple enough, and something he'd done plenty of times during the war; the thoughts of which being one of the few distractions Fox had against Vanessa's war crime of an ROE.

"Simple enough." Fox nodded, forcing himself to keep a neutral expression while his emotions threatened to start tearing him apart, boiling away with an anger the vulpine wasn't sure he'd quite felt before.

"Good. Once Lasker has successfully made it inside the terminal's defensive perimeter, you'll all return back here." She placed a hand on the small stack of folders that had gone untouched until now, giving it a shove and sliding it across the polished glass to Fox. "Everything else you might need to know is in here: technical specifications for the convoy's vehicles, local weather and wind patterns, physical maps, etcetera."

"These should help," Star Fox's leader grunted bluntly, internally conflicted in even taking the documents or not. "When did you want us to leave, again?"

"Two hours, no less. The convoy won't wait, and I can't hold traffic forever."

"Okay. We need to do some final prep and get some food, but we'll get Lasker home." Fox kept up his facade, just wanting the meeting to be over sooner rather than later.

"I'd hope so, McCloud. For both our sakes."

Fox found himself sitting down outside, having taken a bench along the wall of the base's command building. It was a quiet spot to collect his thoughts, and more importantly out of view of the front windows.

"...I still can't fucking believe her," he mumbled, rubbing his forehead. "Starting to wonder if this is the sorta thing Wolf deals with."

Peppy sat next to him, doing what he could to comfort the team's leader with a back rub. "I wouldn't think 'bout that right now, Fox. Only gonna make things worse; you'll just be more distracted."

"I know, Pep, it's just…" He trailed off, unable to finish with the storm of emotions brewing inside.

"Fox? You know that just because we're allowed to, doesn't mean we have to, right?" He brought his face out of his hands, hearing Slippy finally say something after all this time. The mechanic had a rather good point; none of them would be willing to shoot a vehicle potentially full of civilians even if they were allowed to.

"Besides, we can just use warning shots at first if we have to! That should make anyone honest turn around, right?" Slippy continued, going back to his usual cheerful tone either unconsciously or as an attempt to raise Fox's mood. "Maybe she's just being hyperbolic? I think an uncle of mine used to do that when he wanted to tell me something important!"

The vulpine didn't immediately reply, only sighing and massaging his furry forehead again for a good minute and finding it almost feverishly warm.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're not wrong, Slip. Guess we'll just have to rely on just hoping nobody decides to come driving at us, civilian or not." He shrugged; it wasn't much reassurance to cling to, but at this point Fox would take anything he could get no matter how realistic it might've been.

"Krys, you pick up anything from her?" Fox fixed his posture, looking up at her standing nearby.

She nodded, glancing left and right before giving him a gloomy look. "Seems our fears were right, I'm afraid. You pressuring her about aircraft made her mentally vulnerable long enough for me to dig further… It's all true, Fox. I can't sense an ulterior motive, but her telling us we can kill innocents is just the tip of this iceberg."

"...Do we really want to know more?"

"Only if you want."

Fox looked around at his team, giving each member a questioning look. "Do we?"

"Sure, just gives us more dirt on tha' bitch," Falco replied, crossing his arms. "Can't say I'm gonna be a fan of workin' for the CDF after this, tho'."

The hare took a minute to formulate his own reply, probably considering his words carefully. "I think I'm gonna have to be with Falco on this one, Fox. Might give us a list of what to expect from her. I know I said this shouldn't be something to get lost on earlier, but I don't think any of us wanna be caught with our pants down," Peppy concurred, nodding.

Krystal's expression soured, seeing that she was already outvoted. "Hmph, I can't say I like this Fox, but I need you to promise me something."

"Go on?"

"I'll be more willing to do this if you promise to bring Grey in after everything's done here. I fully believe she's better off locked up rather than in command of anything." The vixen crossed her arms, looking back at Fox intently.

"I promise," Fox finally replied, weak smile included. "We're in a good position to leak some info on what she's done; I'm confident everyone's gonna listen to us." Playing into his team's fame wasn't something he often liked to do, but actually being able to use his influence for something that could potentially help everybody in the long run felt more justified. "The second we get back I'll talk to Pepper, he'll know what to do."

"But Fox, what if he already knows all about this?" Slippy interjected, bringing up a fair point. "Can't we rely on someone outside the CDF?"

"Slip, when have we ever not been able to trust Pepper? We've worked with him for years; doesn't make sense he'd be an issue now, right?"

"Sorry… I just don't feel good about any of this." Slippy really spoke for everyone else at this point.

"Don't worry about it, bud… Krystal?" This was going to be painful for everyone.

Krystal closed her eyes, bringing up memories that she'd prefer to keep hidden until the end of time. "There is a limit on how much and how far her memories go back. The earliest one I can put together is one of… forcing out a bunch of civilians from what looks like a radio telescope. It's not pretty, Fox."

"The CDF?"

"Yes. It seems like they needed it for long-range communications, back to Corneria. It's hardly the worst of the bunch, though."

With another sigh, Fox nodded. "Go on." His view of the CDF was falling apart minute by minute now, and just packing up and leaving was only getting more and more enticing. Something was holding him back, though. What it was Fox couldn't tell, but part of him thought by sticking around they'd be able to fix things, at the very least letting someone higher up in the CDF he could trust know about his insane CO.

"She knows the MLF has access to some sort of advanced anti-air weapon. Something powerful enough to bring down those gunships we saw on our first day here."

Fox felt his blood pressure shoot up again. "Out of all the shit she's keeping hidden, it's THAT!?" Giving his team clearance to blow up civilians was one thing, but willingly holding back the one fact that could potentially endanger the lives of his team was another. "But why? We're fucking pilots! She kept acting like we're all important, and now she's WILLINGLY going to let us get killed?"

Fox gave himself a moment to calm down and collect his thoughts; what would they be dealing with? Missiles? Some sort of vehicle fitted with blaster cannons pointed skyward? The team's Arwings had basic countermeasures in the form of flares, and Falco's was fitted with a jamming device to confuse anything radar-guided, but Krystal's mention of "advanced" might mean the basics they had wouldn't be enough.

"Slippy?"

"Yeah, Fox?"

"How fast can you fit our Arwings with ECM's? I know we've got some equipment for that packed away."

The team's flight mechanic sighed, closing his eyes for a second before responding. "I think I can rig something up pretty quickly, weight shouldn't even be noticeable, and it'll draw directly from the Arwing's fuel cells for power. Should be enough juice to scramble anything infrared or laser guided."

Fox rubbed his temple, but still smiled back at his friend. "Thanks, Slip. Combined with our flares, I think we'll be covered."

"I'll need to mount it on the outside of the hull, I don't have enough time to push internals around to make room, and I wouldn't imagine putting it into the munitions bay…" Slippy looked over to Falco, spotting him with his arms crossed, and knowing the bird liked bringing along extra smart bombs whenever he could.

"Heh, you betta' not."

"Feels like this might be the first thing that goes to plan since we got here." Fox looked back to Krystal, judging her expression. "...Any other dirt you have on Grey?"

Krystal shook her head again. "No, that's all I managed to get, but I'm reasonably sure this barely scratches the surface."

The team's leader hung his head in thought, looking at the weathered concrete below. "I don't know." He shrugged, picking his head back up again. "Knowing what we know now, I need some input from you guys; should we even bother with this anymore?"

Nobody said a word for a good few moments, the question hanging above their heads like a net full of rocks, ready to drop at a moment's notice.

"I'm still up for it," Falco finally broke the ice. "I didn't wanna go through all this trouble for nothin', and Slip's got a point; not like we have ta' bomb some civvies' anyways."

"You just want something to shoot, don't you?"

"Eh." He shrugged, unapologetically. "Can't deny that. You know me, Fox."

While he'd struggle to admit it, part of him couldn't help but agree with Falco. This entire trip of theirs would've been pretty unfulfilling, minus what they found out about their CO.

"Fair point… Peppy?"

Sighing, Peppy closed his eyes again, finally opening them after a moment before speaking up. Fox figured he was conflicted too. "It's a pretty sour dilemma, but I honestly think we can get the most done by going along with it; we'll be helping someone in need, and once that's over with we can decide further. If Grey wants us to run another shady op' after this, then we can bail. Getting this little escort job of hers done might build some 'trust' between us and her though. Might get Vannessa to relax a bit more when we're around, and if Krystal's taught me anything bout' her abilities we could maybe get more dirt outta' her too."

"That's… Pretty solid logic, Pep."

The hare chuckled, smiling back. "Eh, dunno about 'solid', but I think it's got the best chance of giving us more info to work on, and we'll still have the option to just pack up and leave with all a' Vanessa's baggage. Turn it into someone we can trust."

Fox nodded, already leaning towards his mentor's suggestion. "Slippy, Krys? I'm pretty sure you've got something to say."

The amphibian looked ready to speak, but Krystal beat him to the punch. "Going against a bunch of possible hidden anti-aircraft positions is going to be dangerous, Fox. I'm confident I'll be able to sense anyone hiding out next to the road we're going to be following, but once they fire we'll be relying on Slippy's jamming tech and maneuvering until it's dealt with."

"Right…" Fox rubbed the back of his head. "I'm willing to bet they've gotten their hands on some old Venomian weapons, but those could be pretty easily fooled by just leading those missiles into something. Peppy, haven't you done that?"

"Yup, on Corneria… Heh, glad they never bothered to change that quirk in time." He smirked, remembering leading Venomian seeker missiles back to their launchers during the war.

Fox turned back to Krystal. "You said something 'advanced' though, right? That's not much to go on alone."

"It might have been some sort of missile… Downing a gunship." Closing her eyes, the azure vixen tried her best to dig up the stolen memory. "It was one of the same ones we saw parked earlier, the big propeller-driven ones… There's something about how it left no wreckage to recover, but… It could just be Grey's attempts to hide details, I don't know if it's anything more."

"Alright, well, I think we can handle some old Venomian tech." Fox reassured, "Can't be too different from the ones we saw during the war, just smaller, right?" He knew most of the team probably remembered dealing with the constant volleys of persistant, but dumb ship-to-ship missiles fired by Andross's fleets, and Fox figured something relying on the same guidance tech wouldn't pose much of a threat to an Arwing's sheer maneuverability and speed.

"I won't lie to you Fox, but something about this whole mission feels off. Grey has withheld so much information from us like it's second-nature for her and I'm almost expecting there's more to this. Maybe she's not fully in the loop either for all we know, but I want all of us to be careful." Krystal suggested, with a weary look across her face.

"Krys's got a point, guys." Fox quickly agreed. "The second that feeling of hers gets worse, we gotta consider bugging out, understood?" He couldn't deny feeling bad that Krystal had been outvoted, but she still seemed willing to go, albeit reluctantly. WIth more nods from the rest of the team, Fox turned to his mechanic.

"Slippy? You have anything to add? Are those ECM's you have in mind gonna be effective enough in case we run into something new?"

"Yup! Pretty fancy stuff, really; the device rapidly switches radar frequencies and spits out false signals everywhere, should confuse anything trying to get a lock." Fox's understanding of electronic warfare and signals intelligence still had some catching up to do, but he'd constantly entrusted his life to Slippy's gadgets before, today shouldn't be any different. "I think Peppy's got a point, too; and I wanna field test those new shield modules."

Fox nodded back, realizing most of the team's general consensus on the issue. It was clear nobody was fully comfortable working with an effective war criminal, but Peppy's idea seemed to make the best out of a bad situation. As the team's commander though, Fox had the final say.

"You guys should get some food… I, uh, need a minute here to think over some things."

"You sure, Fox?" Peppy asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, Pep. I need to think for a bit, otherwise this is probably gonna bug me while we're airborne."

"Alright, just don't forget to get some food in ya' before we take off." The hare nodded back, turning around with the rest of the team before slowly walking off. It felt wrong, like this was some sort of final goodby to them or something equally as emotional.

"Huh, guess it sorta is. To the CDF I thought I knew."

Fox almost felt like his world was starting to crumble around him, and the morally-righteous Corneria he knew and loved with it. For as long as he could remember, they'd acted as the "good guys" he needed to get behind for most of his childhood and flight academy days, always someone to cheer for.

His mind refused to believe that someone so horrid like Vanessa could be allowed to even hold a position with her blatant disregard for the people she was supposedly trying to protect. General Shears all those years ago had been the only outlier he'd ever known, and even that back then still managed to play with his emotions.

"Peppy's got a pretty good idea though; we came here to help people, didn't we?"

Standing up, Fox steeled himself to deliver his decision, slowly walking away from the bench after a few more minutes of silence. Some time alone with just his thoughts felt good after talking with his team, where the only thing that bothered interrupting was a distant vehicle driving by somewhere on the base.

Shifting his thoughts over to food, Fox finally started making his way back to the team's reserved aircraft hangar, still thankful circumstances allowed the team to make their own decisions.

A/N: Not too much action for this chapter, I know. Honestly this took longer than it should, and I just wanted to get something else just in case a possibly pretty soon death in my family cripples my ability to write anything for a bit.